“The greatest enemy of tomorrow’s success is yesterday’s success.” – Pastor Rick Warren
Change is challenging. No one really likes to change, not even us as leaders. Unless the change of course is our own great idea! John Maxwell says it like this, “Most people are more comfortable with old problems than new solutions, because the new represents the unknown.” We can all agree that these last three years have been some of the most challenging years we have ever had to lead through. And there are no current signs of that changing any time soon! This is not the time you want to try and get comfortable with the status quo. We need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. Change of course makes us uncomfortable, but it’s where we grow. And the worst thing you can do is to lower your bar to match the environment around you. The regression that will come from this action will be hard, if not impossible to ever overcome.
How many cancerous people have you kept around in your world over these last few years because you KNEW that it was going to be a big change not having them? Even though you know deep down inside, it would be best for you and the organization! When I think about some of the growth challenges we faced over the years, that one always stings to think about. The longer we wait to implement the inevitable changes we know we need to make, the harder they become. Habits are tough to break. And it’s much easier to start bad ones than good ones. And even harder to break them, so we just keep them alive – Slowly killing our culture, lowering morale, and undermining our credibility as leaders more and more every day.
As leaders, it’s important for us to recognize that change is a difficult process not just for us but even more so for the people we lead. You have to remember they aren’t in your head as you’re dreaming of a better tomorrow, and they can’t see your heart for why things need to change. It’s your job to show them openly your heart and allow them inside your head as often as possible.
This year has been a big year for changes at Atlas. Just to name a couple 1) We have completely overhauled our old sales process, 2) We have set different (very sharp) parameters in place for what our ideal client and project looks like 3) We changed the way we invoice and charge our clients for services rendered. These items were far past due, and talked about for years, but the last few years made it fully known that if we were going to continue to grow as an organization, what we were doing wasn’t going to be scalable and able to grow with us! We were using phase two systems in a growing phase five organization. These changes pushed us way out of our comfort zone, rubbed some of our people the wrong way, and led to some heated conversations amongst team leaders. We analyzed the risk that could come, and we were of course concerned that it would cost us potentially dozens of clients. Did they add some additional grey hairs to many of us, absoflippinlutely! (Maybe even a few hairs lost for some of our leaders, but that is a different topic)… But as a result, these changes not only did not cost us many clients(the ones that it did, were not a good fit for the direction we wanted to go), but have actually added NEW revenue growth (4 additional crews in 2022 and over 7 figures of new revenue over last year)!
So listen to this my amigos… We all know by now that change is necessary, but here’s something we can’t ignore: It is absolutely vital for your team to accept and help implement the changes that need to happen. This cannot just be something you as the leader want, your TEAM has to be on board and clear on the mission/vision. If you’re the ONLY one thinking you need to make changes in the organization, that is a big problem. That just means that there is a huge disconnect between what has happened, and what is happening, where you’ve been, where the Team has been, and where you are going. So you can’t just walk into the office today and start barking “We gotta make some changes around here”! That will go over like a fart in church! Your people know deep down inside that changes need to be made, but there is a way to go about it.
Where do you start? I thought you’d never ask! Here are a few things to consider as you seek to help implement changes:
1. Slow the heck down! — If you run too far ahead of your Team, it creates an information gap. When people don’t know how to fill that gap, it’s easy for them to develop negative assumptions about you and your leadership. Those assumptions, in turn, create barriers to implementing changes. So no matter what you suggest, it’ll always be shut down. That’s why it is so important for you to slow down and be available as you seek to initiate change — it gives your people enough time to ask questions and create buy-in for what’s happening within the Team. Our sales, operations, and admin Team have done an exceptional job with communicating and implementing our changes that we rolled out this year. If they hadn’t communicated them properly to our team members and clients, they never would have stuck, we would have had a bunch of stressed out employees, and ticked off clients. And you guessed it, as a result we would have resorted right back into our old ways.
2. Communicate clearly and simply — How do you know when your message is clear and simple enough? When the people that hear it can share it with others. That’s the magic! Leaders who effectively communicate their plans for change create advocates who champion those plans to the rest of the team. This enhances unity among the team and multiplies buy-in. I call this the cascading growth! Growth that produces growth that produces more growth. This is powerful!
3. Make time for your people to process ideas — If you want to make changes for 2023(I trust that you are), you better be prepping them now with your team. No great chef just throws some ingredients together and then sticks it in the oven. The mastery comes in the prep! I understand personally this struggle very well. You see a need for change, so you strategize and analyze for hours/days/months until you come up with a good solution, and now you’re ready for action. But when you tell your team, they look at you like you have five heads! So you bury the idea and proceed with the old method. Hoping things will just naturally get better. (newsflash, it wont) – I used to be the king of walking into the office, with a 1/2 dozen things that had been stirring up in my brain, only to dump them on somebody and they roll off them, right into the recycle bin. It was because they weren’t with me through the process. Taking action and not communicating before your key people accept the change will always lead to problems. That’s why it is so important to build in time for how long it will take for implementation.
Remember this.. No matter how good or necessary change is for the organization(and yes, it is necessary), it will ultimately fail if your people don’t accept it. If you want to get the best results from your team, you need to buy into this reality and work hard to ensure that not just you are the only one that is seeing the vision. Each day brings new challenges, and the BEST teams adapt to those challenges. The leader who can lead change effectively will produce a Team that not only welcomes changes, but also champions them with others! Get comfortable with being uncomfortable and start talking about what you’re cooking up now before you plop it in the oven down the road!